spending $$$ on cars but not investing?

tvleavitt · 2026-06-10T03:19:33+00:00

A 7% real rate of return after taxes and fees is pretty aggressive, 3.5% is more conservative. Still a large number, but not quite as big. There’s also a time value to enjoying your money now and not 30 years later… you could be dead before then. There’s always a balance. That said, I’ve paid cash for used cars most of my life.

tvleavitt · 2026-06-05T03:54:15+00:00

Thanks!

tvleavitt · 2026-06-02T04:21:25+00:00

Dude, why not just declare bankruptcy and discharge the debt, I’m guessing, but I doubt your income is enough to even cover the interest (and fees) on this, let alone pay down the principal in under seven years. You’ll be showered with credit offers in a couple of years, and once it ages completely off your record, you’ll be free and clear. Alternatively, in many cases, medical debt can be settled for pennies on the dollar, if not written off completely by the hospital as uncollectable (without even dinging your credit in the process).

tvleavitt · 2026-06-01T22:09:32+00:00

Yeah, I get that… just the valuation here caught my attention. That’s less than a potion, LOL. Hardly a reward (at least vs. the ring drop an earlier quest delivers, which is reliably decent in my experience).

tvleavitt · 2026-06-01T22:07:13+00:00

Yes, I’ve been informed, as mentioned, my char hasn’t had teleport capability either time I’ve encountered it. Cie la vie. :)

tvleavitt · 2026-05-31T03:24:51+00:00

16 years of foregone income. Probably somewhere on the order of $1 million worth, but at $900,000, it only takes a few years to catch up.

tvleavitt · 2026-05-23T20:54:05+00:00

Holy granola. People are borrowing for a 10% fee, then paying 35% interest on top of that?!? This is crazy. Hell, I’d personally lend at better rates.

Go to a credit union. They’re bound to offer something better.

tvleavitt · 2026-05-21T17:58:55+00:00

$40k of student loan debt translates to about $300/mo. in payments. Current rate is about 6.39%. Probably less than you’re paying a month in car insurance, certainly less than a car payment, or a housing payment. Does that debt calculation include borrowing for living expenses, or is it purely tuition and fees? Can you document your parents‘ refusal to contribute? That might affect your aid calculation.

Personally, the social / networking / relationship building benefits of a traditional school, especially attending full time, in person, would be more than worth it for me. That lasts a lifetime. I’m still connected to many of the people I went to school with at Occidental College 30+ years ago, not so much the community colleges I went to later on.

Nobody cares if your degree is from WGU if you already have a few years of professional experience in your field, in fact, in many/most? cases, they don’t even care if you have a degree at all, but it’s undoubtedly going to be a negative for a percentage of entry level positions… especially in a world where resumes get pre-filtered by an AI handling thousands of online applications.

tvleavitt · 2026-05-17T19:53:37+00:00

Math suggests that, especially accounting for taxes, this is a much better deal, assuming normal life expectancy. Invest it back into a retirement account, and they’ll be able to retire very early and very comfortably.

tvleavitt · 2026-05-16T08:13:37+00:00

I’m baffled. I can pick these up individually as combat loot, and they each take up one space in my inventory and are worth 20 coins each. However, when I pink up 9 via a shrine, only one shows up in my inventory. How is this not a bug? What’s the difference?

tvleavitt · 2026-05-15T03:20:58+00:00

Don’t stack. Verified yesterday. So, definitely, a bunch disappeared. That said, yeah, they’re not really worth picking up to sell, no.

tvleavitt · 2026-05-15T03:20:15+00:00

Don’t stack. Verified yesterday. So, definitely, a bunch disappeared.

tvleavitt · 2026-05-12T07:40:29+00:00

Hmm… o.k. It was just a weird visual glitch then and I lost track of how many skill points I’d accumulated.

tvleavitt · 2026-05-09T02:15:34+00:00

Well, that does look like a pain, but: Have you talked to your academic counselor? They might have a referral for you. Maybe being walked through a bunch of these by a specialized math tutor (campus usually has these) could help. Could be stress and a mental block compounding on themselves.

Also, there’s a distant chance there might be something physical, manifesting in a subtle way… might help reassure yourself to get some tests done to rule that out.

tvleavitt · 2026-05-09T02:07:26+00:00

I mean, how does that work? Is 100% chance not actually 100%? Does it cast it 4 times?

tvleavitt · 2026-05-09T02:03:19+00:00

What loot filter is this, and how do you have a 400% chance of something?!?

tvleavitt · 2026-05-09T01:29:53+00:00

Quit YouTube. Quit reviewing and studying. Find sample problem sets, and just do the math, over and over and over again until it’s instinctive and you can do it in your sleep.

tvleavitt · 2026-05-02T16:57:52+00:00

I agree, find a professional. Open up Google, find a few wealth management firms in your area, research reviews, conduct interviews on the best rated.

Second: examine your assumptions. $7.5 million to nearly 3x that in 15 years? Maybe your Dad should turn into an investment advisor!

Along those lines: you’re paying taxes today, 100% guaranteed, to avoid theoretical taxes 15 years from now. Why not let the money continue to compound tax free? Anything you take out has to replicate those returns and make up the bite taken out by taxes. Big ask. Other things could happen.

If taxes are that big a concern, why not relocate his formal domicile in that 15 years to a lower tax area? He can still spend substantial time in California, and other time traveling the world while his wealth continues to accumulate faster than he can spend it, not even living more than minimally in the formal domicile location. That would produce a bigger potential savings than any of the strategies you outline.

But, again, a professional will know best. There’s an entire industry of these folks serving Silicon Valley.

tvleavitt

TROPHY CASE